Philip Mitchell
Founder ▼ Host of Trial By Stone: The Dark Crystal Podcast and The Dark Crystal Minute ▼ Producer ▼ Video and Audio Editor ▼ Head of Social Media
Philip Mitchell has been a fan of The Dark Crystal at a young age, watching the film on VHS in the 1990’s hundreds of times.
He started the podcast in August 2014, at a time when The Dark Crystal was slowly becoming a franchise, with graphic and young adult novels being released.
Philip is an Australian filmmaker, based in Melbourne, Victoria.
He completed Advanced Diploma of Screen and Media in 2010 at Footscray City Films, and has directed, written, edited and produced many short films in different genres, fantasy, horror, documentary and drama.
Philip’s short film Surviving Black Saturday, a tale on his families survival from the Black Saturday bushfires on February 7th 2009, won Best Documentary award from Footscray City Films in late 2009 and was awarded a scholarship to complete his studies in 2010.
In 2010, he co-wrote and directed a semi biographical short film called Changes, based on the events of the Black Saturday bushfires and his experiences growing up with autism.
He has over eight years of experience in Post-Production and video editing is his main passion.
Sydnni Frost
Host of The Gathering Songs and Co-Host of Trial By Stone: The Dark Crystal Podcast and The Dark Crystal Minute Podcast ▼ Social Media (Facebook and Instagram)
Sydnni Frost is an art teacher, vocal coach and drama teacher from southern California.
She comes from an extensive background in visual and performing arts.
After graduating from Hollywood High School of the Performing Arts, her university studies included musical theatre, stage and special effects makeup, folklore and fantasy literature, and storytelling.
She has worked with various troupes and organizations traveling to schools across California with musical theatre and puppetry performances to “edu-tain” students of all ages on the subjects of art history, anti-bullying, and collaboration. This included a partnership with the Aquarium of the Pacific to develop a musical puppet show about marine life, which evolved into a production that still runs today.
In addition to performing, she also has directed dozens of Summer youth musical theatre productions with Performing Arts Workshops, one of the leading after-school youth programs in California.
After spending some time bringing her skills to after-school programs in the San Francisco bay area and Silicon Valley, Sydnni has slowed down to focus on creative endeavors and delving into the worlds that inspired her to be an artist, primarily the worlds of Jim Henson and the Froud family. As a fan of The Dark Crystal since early childhood, Sydnni is thrilled to join Trial By Stone, as well as help run The Crystal Shard: A Dark Crystal Fan group on Facebook.
Jaime Prater
Host of Legends of Thra: A Dark Crystal Podcast
Jaime Prater is a native of Chicago, Illinois.
He studied film and video at Columbia College Chicago and has been a rabid fan of film and science fiction all of his life.
A published author and filmmaker, he started “Perfect Organism: An Alien Saga Podcast” out of a need for a solely Alien podcast, devoted to the fan community.
Several years later he started another podcast, based on Blade Runner called “Shoulder of Orion: The Blade Runner Podcast”.
Now residing in Los Angeles, California where he co-operates Perfect Organism Podcast and Shoulder of Orion with his partner in crime, Patrick Greene.
James Reedie
Host of Legends of Thra: A Dark Crystal Podcast
James Reedie is an electrical engineer from a small town in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.
He grew up watching puppetry classics such as Labyrinth, The Never Ending Story, The Muppets Christmas Carol and of course The Dark Crystal.
His main hobby is autograph collecting specialising in the cast and crew from both The Dark Crystal and Age of Resistance. In recent years his passion for this lead him to create the_darkcrystalproject an Instagram page soley dedicated to his collection and everything contained within the world of Thra. Further to this he is an admin on The Crystal Shard Facebook page and couldn’t be happier to be a member of the Trial By Stone team.